[lbo-talk] CommonDreams 8/20/07: "Save subprime borrowers, not bloated bankers" by Dean Baker

joanna 123hop at comcast.net
Tue Aug 21 09:25:07 PDT 2007


Miles writes


>You mean that a house with a mortgage payment of $6000/month would only
>rent for $1500/month? If so, why on earth do people buy houses in SF?
>You can live in a much nicer place for much less money if you rent.
>Does the mantra of "home ownership" drown out all rational analysis?
>
Well, I think that the house buying in the Bay area has been mainly of three types:

1. Moving from one house into another. Upgrading. 2. Speculative buying because of continuous and explosive rise in prices 3. Subprime stretching -- buying a lot more house than you can afford and not understanding the byzantine financial arrangements you have signed up for.

And, I assume, people buy houses because that's all that the "American Dream" has amounted to since WWII -- with a brief detour in the 60's.

Joanna



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